1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer program product for data processing system debugging. More specifically, the present invention relates to dynamically modifying logging details.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information technology staff of a manufacturer or system integrator provides support for data processing systems of varying configurations. Some data processing systems are grown by replacing parts as well as replacing subsystems as they become obsolete. A consequence of system installs, upgrades, and software refinement is that some configurations can be unstable. As a result, an error can develop which may be identified by a customer.
Commands given on a data processing system can produce output in several forms. Typically, certain errors are expected and can be classified in advance with their status be written out to output. A log is the data structure to which errors and other status information is stored. Some logs have defined sizes because they are allocated a portion of memory or disk space. Log data is information concerning the operation of one or more processes, and can include both errors as well as statistics and other information concerning operations of the data processing system.
An error is any detectable condition of a data processing system that operates below a user's expectations, below the manufacturer's expectations, or below nominal thresholds for which the data processing system is actually configured. For example, an error can be a tract of data that fails to match a parity check. An error can be a statistic that is above or below a pre-set threshold. An error can be a report made to a data processing system by a device outside of the data processing system, such as, for example, a 404 error response to a web-page query. Errors can be measured by time-outs, failed responses, and unexpected slowness, among other responses.
Commands and processes that instruct a data processing system how to manage a function can be executed in a way that triggers reporting of varying levels of system activity. In many cases, an initial report that is stored to a log is merely a symptom of an error. Rather than identify a person, device, or configuration that is a source or root cause, the initial report simply shows a degradation in data processing system performance. When such symptoms are noticed, the lack of an elevated level of detail by affected commands and processes can limit the retrospective look at system history and confound analysis of the source of the error.